Fila Grappling Officials Clinic (Sept 13th, 2008)

"Please note that the starting location has been changed"

Hello Everyone,

My name is Brian Bird. Myself along with Clive Llewellyn, the president of the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association (CAWA), are in the process of trying to get grappling under FILA up and running here in Alberta.

FILA is the federation that has organized the World Games & Olympics for wrestling and has a strong relationship with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Grappling has been integrated by FILA in 2006 and is managed by the World Grappling Committee (WGC) whose task is to co-ordinate and to develop this discipline at the international level.

WGC was created under the authority of FILA to foster the physical and mental well being of individuals engaging in the discipline of grappling. The goal of WGC is to make grappling an exciting and spectator friendly sport and to rule its practice on a worldwide level in order to ultimately gain Olympic status.

Recently I attended a meeting in Guelph Ontario that was conducted by the the developmental director of CAWA to discuss the process of getting FILA grappling up and running in Canada. It was decided that three things need to be attended to first to make this successful.

First, we need to start running tournaments under the FILA rules.

Second, we need to get those in the grappling community to be involved as either officials, competitors, and/or coaches.

Thirdly, we need to have officials trained so we can have proper tournaments run will knowledgeable officials.

By hosting this clinic we will get the officials that are needed and so we can begin to run tournaments, the first tournament being held October 4th in Calgary, AB.

This officials clinic will be conducted by Clint Kingsbury who is the developmental director for The Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association. He is currently the only internationally certified official for grappling in Canada under FILA. It is our hope that we will have representation from numerous clubs from all area's.

If you are interested in attending the clinic please contact me as soon as possible. I will need to email you some content that you will need to review prior to the clinic.

I'm very excited to be a part of this because I think it has the potential to make huge beneficial impact in the grappling community in Canada.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me at bdbma1@hotmail.com

Thank you.

Brian Bird.

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